The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 — 5

MIKE GROLL/AP

Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Beach, left, Assemblyman Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Luis R. Sepúlveda, D-Bronx, leave a meeting of the so-called Reform Caucus.
Heastie poised to take office 
in New York State Assembly 

In Kalamazoo, 
work begins 
to revamp the 
State Theatre 

Couple pairs art with 
wine in new business 

STEPHEN SENNE/AP

New England Patriots fans take photos at the Boston Marathon finish line Sunday, Feb. 1 in Boston, while celebrating the 
Patriots winning. 
Boston snow storm leads 
to delay in celebration 
after Super Bowl victory

Former leader to 
resign in face of 

corruption charges 

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Carl 

Heastie, a Democratic lawmak-
er from the Bronx, is poised to 
take over leadership of the New 
York state Assembly on Tuesday 
after the resignation of longtime 
speaker Sheldon Silver amid fed-
eral corruption charges.

Heastie had faced as many 

as four other contenders in the 
race to succeed Silver, but his 
final opponent conceded Mon-
day and the Democrats who hold 
the Assembly majority nominat-
ed him with a unanimous vote. 
Republicans hold less than a 
third of the chamber’s seats and 
cannot block his selection.

The 47-year-old Heastie will 

become speaker as the Assembly 

heads into critical budget nego-
tiations with the state Senate 
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The 
speakership is one of the most 
important positions in state 
government, with the power to 
set committee assignments and 
control which bills get votes and 
which ones languish.

In a statement, Heastie said he 

was humbled by his colleagues’ 
support.

“He’s a good man and he’ll do 

a good job,” Silver told reporters 
as he left the Capitol on Monday.

Silver’s 
resignation 
comes 

after he was charged with tak-
ing nearly $4 million in payoffs 
and kickbacks over a decade for 
his influence on real-estate leg-
islation and medical grants. The 
Manhattan Democrat says he 
expects to be exonerated and will 
keep his Assembly seat. He led the 
Assembly as speaker for 21 years.

Assembly Democrats had ini-

tially said they would wait until 
Feb. 10 to select Silver’s replace-
ment, to encourage an open 
and deliberative process. That 
changed, however, as Heastie 
quickly locked up support.

“The members felt that ... a 

consensus had emerged,” said 
Assembly 
Majority 
Leader 

Joseph Morelle of Rochester, 
who was briefly a candidate for 
speaker. “We need to move for-
ward on budget deliberations ... 
to get back to work.”

Heastie’s final rival, Assem-

blywoman 
Catherine 
Nolan 

of Queens, conceded minutes 
before the Democrats voted. “I 
lost,” she said. “I accept their 
judgment.”

On Monday, Heastie met with 

a group of lawmakers known 
as the “reform caucus” because 
of their interest in government 
transparency and accountabil-
ity. The meeting was closed to 

reporters and other members of 
the public, however, and Heastie 
declined to answer reporters’ 
questions as he walked in.

In a statement, Heastie vowed 

to pursue a series of ethics 
reforms including a new Office of 
Ethics and Compliance led by a 
non-legislator, new limits on how 
much outside income lawmakers 
can earn, and greater reporting 
of outside income and legislative 
stipends. Outside pay is a central 
issue in the case against Silver.

“We must seize this oppor-

tunity for reform and enact the 
type of lasting change that will 
make the Assembly more open, 
transparent and accountable to 
the voters,” he said in a state-
ment.

Cuomo on Monday suggested 

his own proposals to overhaul 
legislative ethics rules and said 
he wouldn’t sign a state budget 
unless lawmakers take action. 

Parade for the Pats 
must wait as snow 
blankets the city 

BOSTON (AP) — The Super 

Bowl celebration for New Eng-
landers and their beloved Patriots 
will have to wait another day as 
Boston continues to get battered 
by heavy snow.

Mayor Marty Walsh said the 

city will postpone a planned vic-
tory parade through downtown 
until Wednesday morning.

He said the city and team have 

both agreed to hold off on the 
parade due to Monday’s protract-
ed snowstorm, which dumped 
more than a foot of fresh snow in 
the Boston area, making morning 
and evening commutes treacher-
ous.

“We thank everyone for their 

flexibility and patience during 
the planning of this parade and 
we look forward to celebrating 
with Patriots fans during better 
weather on Wednesday,” he said 
in a joint statement with the team.

The city had announced earlier 

that the downtown parade would 
take place Tuesday. But with 
weather continuing to worsen, 
Boston public schools preemp-
tively canceled Tuesday classes, 
the fifth snow day in the past 
week. A decision to cancel the 
parade followed shortly after.

Boston has seen a record 34.2 

inches of snow over seven days, 
according to the National Weath-
er Service. The previous seven-
day record was 31.2 inches in 
January 1996.

Following their 28-24 victory 

over the defending champion 
Seattle Seahawks in Arizona, the 
Patriots flew back to Massachu-
setts as scores of flights in and out 
of Boston’s Logan airport were 
canceled or delayed Monday.

The latest snowstorm didn’t 

stop New Englanders from bask-
ing in the glow of their team’s 
fourth Super Bowl victory.

Todd Penney, of Coventry, 

Connecticut, was still recovering 
from a heady night of celebrating 
as he prepared for work Monday 
morning as a town engineer.

“My voice is very hoarse from 

screaming at the TV. I was all in 

last night,” he said. “It will be a 
lot more fun for me to snowblow 
this morning after the Patriots’ 
win, than if they would have lost, 
that’s for sure.”

Other fans recounted tense 

moments from the rollercoaster 
victory.

“It was an exciting game, a 

nail-biter to the end. You don’t get 
to see games like that very often,” 
said George Vemis, as he cleared 
the sidewalk in front of his vari-
ety store in Whitman, south of 
Boston.

Cheryl Happeny, a business 

analyst from Whitman, said the 
victory is especially satisfying 
because so many people outside 
of New England have been call-
ing the team cheaters since the 
scandal over underinflated foot-
balls in the Patriots’ winning 
game over the Indianapolis Colts 
erupted.

“It was a sweet victory,” she 

said. “I don’t think it will quiet 
the critics. I’m waiting for it to 
heat up again. Everyone hates the 
Patriots because we’re breaking 
so many records. ...We’re like the 
Yankees of the NFL.”

Renovations include 
refurbishments to 
theatre’s marquee

 
KALAMAZOO, 
Mich. 
(AP) 

— Kalamazoo’s State Theatre is 
spending money to make money.

Executive 
director 
Stepha-

nie Hinman is in the midst of a 
renovation at the historic theatre 
that includes refurbishment and 
relamping of the marquee, removal 
of old curtains, rearrangement of 
some seating, cleaning and repair 
of dressing rooms, removal of old 
fixtures and replacement of cables 
behind the scenes.

The work started with fixes that 

addressed the safety and integrity 
of the building and has moved on to 
production systems.

The reason for the activity, 

which began this summer: “We’re 
putting money into it in hopes we 
can get our money back,” Hinman 
told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

“We hope more people buy 

tickets and when more people buy 
tickets to the shows we’re able to 
provide this experience for every-
body,” she said.

Hinman’s father Roger Hinman 

put her in charge of the building 
and guiding its update in April. Her 
wish list of improvements could 
cost up to $5 million. Some of the 
work that’s already taken place 
includes painting and recarpeting 
the green rooms and fixing a roof 
leak. She’s considering adding air 
conditioning, which would allow 
the theater to operate in the sum-
mer.

One of the most visible current 

renovations: putting new curtains 
on the stage.

“The materials are one thing, 

the installation is another,” Hin-
man said. “They don’t just cut them 
down. We had to demo the old ones. 
It’s a process. Everything is weight-
ed and balanced.”

Along with the actual curtains, 

workers have been replacing old 
ropes with new cables for operating 
the curtains, with workers cleaning 
as they go along and salvaging what 
they can of old materials.

Jacob Wargo, production man-

ager at the 1,500-seat theater, said 
one thing they wanted to save was 
the original fire curtain from the 
theater, which was designed by 
Chicago architect John Eberson in 
1927 for $350,000.

“The fire curtain was a signature 

item in all of his theaters,” Wargo 
said. “His go-to thing when he fin-
ished every theater was to put a 
mural on the fire curtain. He’s got 
about six of these Spanish court-
yard theme curtains. The Palace in 
Gary (Indiana) is almost identical 
to this.”

Back stage, workers have also 

removed old lights, many of 
which were wired with old asbes-
tos wiring and work is being done 
to disconnect the huge old light 
panel.

“My god, I love the panel. It’s 

really sweet,” she said, but it has 
to be moved to create more room, 
where space is at a premium.

Hinman said that during the 

renovations, she discovered some-
thing she never knew about the 
theater — that there are a lot more 
dressing rooms and bathrooms 
than she knew about.

Franchise offers 
unique classes for 
local art enthusiasts 

in Traverse City 

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. 

(AP) — Mix paint, wine, social 
time. Stir with some instruc-
tion. End up a couple of hours 
later with something to hang 
on your wall, and perhaps a 
new friend.

David and Nicole Les-

lie just opened a Painting 
With a Twist franchise in 
Traverse City. The business 
offers 
artist-led 
sessions 

during 
which 
customers 

paint a copy of a picture, 
imbibe if they like and have 

a bit of social time with oth-
ers in the class.

“We 
went 
to 
Colorado 

Springs and went to (a ses-
sion). We had a blast,” David 
Leslie told the Traverse City 
Record-Eagle.

They researched Painting 

With a Twist and discovered 
the 8-year-old company has 
nearly 200 franchises in 28 
states.

The 
concept 
revolves 

around the opportunity for 
anyone, even those with no 
painting experience, to create 
a painting from a blank can-
vas good enough to display at 
home.

The Leslies hired four local 

painters to lead various ses-
sions.

Preparation 
for 
opening 

the new business was hectic, 
David Leslie said.

“I was sweating. I was los-

ing sleep,” he said. “Then sign-
ups started rolling in. They’re 
easing my worries. Everything 
has fallen into place.”

Participants sign up on the 

franchise’s 
website, 
www.

PaintingWithaTwist.com/tra-
verse-city. There, they choose 
from a selection of images in 
the company’s repertoire. That 
choice determines the session 
date. Sessions currently are 
held on Tuesday, Thursday, 
Friday and Saturday evenings 
from 7 to 9 p.m. Another ses-
sion is offered on Saturdays 
from 3 to 5 p.m. The Leslies 
also offer private parties in a 
separate room for groups from 
10 to 35.

